Monday, November 9, 2009

Blog 7

This is my draft so far...I still need to ad two sections to my article (history and culture) and I am planning to do that beore blog #8is due..

Gallura (Wikipedia research)

Gallura is a region situated in northern of Sardinia (pronounced /sɑrˈdɪnɪə/; Italian: Sardegna, IPA /sarˈdeɲɲa/; Sardinian: Sardigna or Sardinnia), Italy. With its 24,090 square kilometres (9,301 sq mi), Sardinia represents the second biggest island of the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily). Sardinia is part of Italy, with a special statute of regional autonomy under the Italian Constitution. WIKIPEDIA The name Gallùra (pronunced Gaddùra in Gallurese, the official dialect) means area located on high ground.LA MIA SARDEGNA Geography Gallùra has a surface of 1,370 square miles and it is situated between 40°55'20"64 latitude north and 09°29'11"76 east longitude. It is 187 kilometers far from the Italian peninsula and 11 kilometers far from the French Island of Corsica.
The coast of Gallura is very jagged and continues along in a continuous series of small fiords, rock-cliffs and little islands, that form the Archipelago of La Maddalena, a natural bridge towards nearby Corsica. The landscape is characterised by granite rocks and harsh mountains that, even if not particularly high ,have constituted for millennia a barrier between this region and the nearby territories of Baronie and Montalbo. Monte Limbara is the highest mountain (1,362 m/4,469 ft). It represents the boundary between Gallura and the near-by region called Logudoro. Its highest peak is Punta Balestrieri (1362 m above the sea level). In the past, Monte Limbara used to be the location of an important NATO long rage radars base and a Carabinieri’s barrack. Today it is used as a telecommunications center for the Italian Air Forceand a heliport for the Servizio Antincendi. It is also the location of all the major TV relay stations of West Sardinia. Another small mountain is Monte Cruzitta (666 m). Even if it is not very high, it offers a very characteristic landscape.
The climate is typical of the Mediterranean. The weather is clear. During the year approximately 300 days are sunny and the few others are rainy, with a major concentration of rainfall in the winter and autumn, some heavy showers in the spring, and snowfalls on the highest massifs and highlands. The mistral is the dominant wind, fresh, strong, and usually dry and cold, blowing from the northwest throughout the year, but most frequently in winter and spring.


Demographics:

Gallura has a population of 143,921 people. The population density has remarkably increased in small centers along the eastern coast and in the cities of Arzachena and Olbia. The population density of 12 municipalities out of 26 has however decreased (-4%) in centers located in the country -side and on the mountains. This tendency depends on the increase of the seaside tourism.
In general, Sardinia represents the Italian region with the lowest fertility rate (1.087 births per woman), and the region with the second lowest birth rate. These factors result positive towards the preservation of the natural environment.
http://www.demos.ss.it/osservatorio/doc/AnalisiDemografica.pdf

Main Towns:
Olbia
Olbia is a town of approximately 45.000 inhabitants. It represents the city with the highest population density of the entire Gallura. In 2005 it became an administrative capital together with Tempio-Pausania. They form the province called Olbia-Tempio.
Founded in 350 B.C., it used to be one of the most important trade areas of the Mediterranean Sea.
Today, it represents the economic center of Sardinia due to its airport, its seaport and also to its closeness to the famous Costa Smeralda tourist area.
Tempio Pausania
Tempio Pausania is a town of 13.800 inhabitants. Together with Olbia, it is the administrative capital of the province Olbia-Tempio.
Founded around 250 B.C., Tempio Pausania is located 560m above the sea level. It represents both the geographical and the cultural capital of Gallura. Every year, thousands of tourists come to visit Tempio Pausania to assist to the characteristic carnevale (carnival), which takes place at the end of February.
Arzachena
Arzachena is a town of 12,080 inhabitants.
It represents the administrative capital of the "Costa Smeralda" tourist area. Founded in 1961 by the prince Karim Aga Khan, Costa Smeralda represents the most exclusive tourist area of Gallura.
Arzachena is also famous for its archeology. Its archeological sites include the LiMuri Tomba dei Giganti (Giants’ Grave).
La Maddalena
La Maddalena is part of an archipelago called Arcipelago della Maddalena. It is situated in the Straits of Bonifacio, which divide Sardinia from Corsica. La Maddalena represents the largest town of this archipelago, which includes the islands of Caprera, S. Stefano, Spargi, Budelli, S. Maria and Razzoli. La Maddalena represents an important tourist site in Gallura and the island of Caprera is famous for being the residence of the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi.
http://www.galluraintasca.it/paesi-di-gallura/arzachena.html

Economy:
The economy of Gallura is based mostly on tourism and hospitality due to the presence of Costa Smeralda and other world-famous sea sites.
The primary sector is not as important as in the rest of Sardinia. It is based mostly on wine production. Also sheep breeding, dairy production, and poultry farm are relevant.
The secondary sector is quite important. It is mostly based on cork work and mineral processing of granite. In fact, it is easy to find cork oaks in many parts of the region and the whole area is rich in granite, especially in vicinity of Monte Limbara.
http://www.gallurasviluppo.it/GS/pattoterritorio.htm
http://www.vacanzeitinerari.it/schede/artigianato_in_gallura_sc_247.htm

Transportation
Gallura has one international airport (Olbia-Costa Smeralda Airport), which is situated in the city of Olbia. It represents one of the three international airports of Sardinia and the base of the Sardinian airline Meridiana, Italy’s third largest airline.
Another way to reach the region of Gallura is by ferry. The ferry companies operating on the Island are Tirrenia di Navigazione, Moby Lines, Corsica Ferry, Grandi Navi Veloci, Snav, SNCM, and CMN. They link the harbors of Olbia, Golfo Aranci, Santa Teresa di Gallura and Palau to the harbors of the Italian peninsula, France, Corsica, and Spain.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Blog #6: Research Narrative

I am very glad to say that I finally started to write about my topic!! So far I have 4 pages, which is quite a lot considering that it took me ages to write them!! This research is harder than what I expected...Most of my info are in Italian and so I have to read, analyze, translate it in my head, and then put everything together and write about the topic.

So far, I wrote an introduction about Gallura, covered the Geography section, and I am almost done with the Demographics.
By the end of next week, I would like to be done with both the Demographics and the Economic section.

I am not having any particular problem so far, I am afraid the hardest part has yet to come and it will be putting everything together before publishing the article (including checking grammar, Wikipedia formate and so on...)!
Anyway, so far so good...

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Blog #5: Long Bibliography


I started to take a deep look through articles that I might be using for my research and the following are some of them:



This website is about sardinia in general. However, one can click on the option Gallura to read about the history of Gallura (I might take this source to write about Gallura's history on my Wikipedia article). Moreover, there is another option called Olbia-Tempio, which is the main city in Gallura. So I could use it to add more info about this city, which will be the one I will write longer about.




Both links conduct to sections dedicated to the enviroment in Gallura, specifically talking about the flora and fauna and also about renewable resources.



This is one of the best websites I have found. It has information about pretty much everything in Gallura, from Geography to the history of all the main cities.



This is the website I will use the most since it is the officila website of Sardinia, where there is consequently a huge part dedicated to Gallura, from the history to the food and the traditions.


Those are the websites I looked at so far. I read them carefully and I believe that so far I collected enough information in order to start writing a pretty good research.

I will keep on looking for other websites of course and I will publish them on this blog eventually.




Blog #4: Venue


Since I decided to create an article for Wikipedia about Gallura, which is a region situated in Sardegna, Italy, I took a look at already existing articles about a topic similar to mine.


For instance, I took a look at Sardinia itself, which is a much broader topic if we consider that Gallura is only a small part of it. The following represents the scheme I will be following for my article:


1. Geography I should specify where it is situated, which are the main mountains, rivers, and lake, and how is the climate like.


2. History

-from neolithic up to today

-immigration tendencies

3. Economy

-GDP and GDP per Capita

-Describe each of the three sectors (primary, secondary, tertiary), specifying which one is the most important.

3.1 Transportation


4. Demographics

-Population Density, and how it changed during the years

-life expectancy (when available)

4.1 Genetic Peculiarities (maybe)


5. Government and Politics

Who has the power and how it is administrated. Probably I will write also a little intro about Sardinia's Government in general.


6.Culture

6.1 Language-gallurese

6.2 Music

6.3 Sport

6.4 Food-typical dishes


7. Enviroment

-Flora and Fauna (plants, animals...)

-Natural Parks (Limbara)

-Renewable Energies


8.Notes


9.References


10.External Links


The last three parts are still a little bit unclear to me and I would like to discuss them further with the professor

Monday, October 5, 2009

Blog #2: Reading Response


The beginning of the book Literary Journalism has been very interesting. I have always written essays in the standard way: giving examples, putting my opinion, following my thesis statement. However, this chapter helped me to analyze deeper my way of writing and I discovered several new ideas that will improve my writing making it much more interesting both for the reader and for me.


For instance, I really enjoyed reading about Ted Conover.I appreciated his idea of "Partecipant observation" (13), which allows the writer to testify not just what he/she saw, but actually what he/she experienced on his/her own skin. Surely enough, when the readers will get to know that what they are reading is an actual experience of the writer and not just a mere story-telling, their interest about the article will grow more and more!


Most of the journalists believe that the most powerful weapon in journalism is patience. For instance, Mark Singer believes that a journalist never has to forget to :"shut up and let the subject talk. Don't be as intrusive, litterally as intrusive, in an interview. Just let the subjects talk and they will reveal things to you" (8). Joseph Mitchell as well agrees with the same technique: "I am not easily bored. I can talk to anybody. If I talk to them long enough, the most amazing things come out" (11). Joe Nocera also stresses this very important point: "In any kind of journalism you have to build a bond of trust. You have to get people to let their hair down when you're around, to be willing to forget about you as a reporter, and to say things" (6).


Of all the journalists in this chapter, those four are the ones who catched my attention the most. The reason is that they tought me a very important lesson: if you really want to write about a topic, you have to be willing to get into that in the best way you can, making as much researches as you can and if it is possible you should actually experience what you are going to write about. Moreover, you have to have the patience to listen to people since in journalism is not your point of view that counts the most but the one of who is actually doing the experiences who want to write about.

Blog #3: My Research's Topic




My Research's Topic will be a place in Italy called Gallura.
Gallura is part of Sardinia, a big, famous Italian island. I will research this topic in order to write an article for the English Wikipidia.
The reason why I choosed this topic is that, even though I come from Rome, I think that Sardinia, with its history and its beautiful landscape, is one the most beautiful places in the world. Since Sardinia is a very broad topic, I decided to focus my research on Gallura, which is situated in the North of Sardinia.It represents the place where I spent unforgettable vacations. Moreover, I am very interested about Sardinia (and Gallura in particular) since both my mother and my boyfriend come from there.
I personally think that it will be interesting for people to get to know this beutiful place, along with its culture and its cities. I am also planning to publish several pictures, in order to make my research more interesting and complete.